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Experian’s identity theft campaign has impeccable timing

The week that the news broke about the recent Equifax data breach, TV expenditures from competing credit monitoring service Experian skyrocketed. The company began airing commercials in heavy rotation offering a one-time, free dark web scan.

Experian began advertising in earnest during the first week of September, after having non-existent advertising activity throughout the entire month of August. In comparison, Experian spent an estimated $5.0 million on national TV alone during August 2016. However, the week that the news broke, Experian’s expenditures on national TV jumped from zero to $3.0 million and have continued to hover above at least $1.2 million weekly ever since.

Update: While Experian’s uptick in ad activity was well-timed to the data breach, they reached out to us to let us know it was purely coincidental. The ad is part of a larger identity protection campaign that began running in May.

According to our data, campaign expenditures on national TV have reached an estimated $27.0 million so far. This figure is inclusive of the new spot, which first aired on September 4. As of October 15, the new ad has aired nationally approximately 3,500 times with expenditures totaling $9.9 million.

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As this story continues to unfold, we’ll be closely monitoring advertising activity from Equifax, Experian and other credit reporting companies to see if anyone else increases advertising activity to compete for their share of the market.

Want to learn more about our advertising monitoring solutions? Find out how our actionable insights can help you keep track of how a specific category, brand, or message theme is trending across the entire media mix – contact us today at info-us@kantarmedia.com!